The Clique
by rkocena54
Summary: At Jefferson High School, the pecking order is very well established, which new student Layla quickly learns. Worlds collide and romance blossoms when wrestling season begins and kids from every clique, including Layla, sign up for the team.


**A/N:** Just an introduction chapter to get you used to the characters basically :) All the characters mentioned are WWE Superstars, except in Michelle and Swagger's group, I made them up, but they're kind of irrelevant. And yes, I made Michelle and Jack siblings, because it kinda made sense to me. Enjoy and please review. For the full reading experience, send me a message and I'll give you the link to the PDF file. There's also a trailer on Youtube, if you can't find it let me know.

**MONDAY**

Jefferson High wasn't an unusual high school. It had everything any usual school had; bullies, popular kids, dorks, nerds, clubs, teams, teachers, staff... Aside from having great cafeteria food, Jefferson wasn't any different to all the other schools in Tampa. But to Layla, it might as well have been a new planet. Well, it almost was. Florida was different to London in every way, and walking into the cafeteria for the first time, Layla was unable to look anyone in the eye. Nerves had never been her thing, but then again, neither had moving countries.

She walked past the burn-out rockers, a small group of boys with long hair and dark clothes, the stuck up jocks, a larger group of mostly boys, all blonde and all tanned, the slutty popular girls with their layers of make-up and hair extensions, the guys who stalk the slutty popular girls, the popular but modest jocks with their charming smiles, and lastly, the comic book nerds. Or the punks. Or the second string jocks? Layla couldn't tell.

Sitting at the smallest table in the room were two boys, who had somehow managed to find a dark corner in the otherwise bright cafeteria. The first had a blue hair sticking straight up, with a wrinkled black Misfits shirt hanging off his slightly-too-skinny torso. He had multiple piercings and was reading The Amazing Spiderman, while seated next to him was a clean cut guy with short dark hair, buried in an X-Men comic. Surrounded by the beautiful and fabulous, Layla's intimidation forced her towards their table. Neither were talking to each other, and neither noticed Layla as she approached them. Just as she opened her mouth to greet the two boys, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"You don't wanna do that."

As she turned around, Layla found herself face-to-chest with one of the girls from the jock table. She towered over Layla, and her long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail. Layla was entirely unsure of what to say, but thankfully, the blonde spoke again.

"Come on, come sit with me. You're Layla, right?"

Layla silently nodded her head yes, her only thoughts being of Cady Heron sitting with the Plastics instead of the Janis and Damien on her first day. She contemplated politely declining the blonde's offer, but before she could, the blonde put her arm around Layla's shoulder.

"Okay, Layla, let's get you away from here before anyone sees you."

The blonde practically forced Layla down at her table of all-American jocks, and with her dark complexion and hair, Layla stuck out like a sore thumb.

"Guys, this is Layla. Lay, this is Mark, Petey, AJ, Tom, Kristy, Robbie and my brother, Jack. I'm Michelle. Michelle Swagger."

"Hi" Layla choked out nervously. Even sitting down, she could tell that Michelle's brother was insanely tall and muscular, much more so than the average 17 year old. He had short blonde hair sticking up in no particular pattern, and he looked seriously unhappy to see Layla.

"Layla was about to sit over there" Michelle bit back a laugh and pointed towards the smaller table.

"Are you serious?" Jack laughed, his serious expression finally cracking.

"Why, who are they?" Layla praised herself for finally getting out a full sentence. It had only taken her a whole half a day.

"The rejects." Michelle snorted as she took a bite from her salad sandwich.

"Phil's the one with the blue hair, and Cody's the ugly duckling." Kristy smiled at Layla. She took a glance at Phil and Cody's table and rolled her eyes. "Neither of them have any friends."

"Ugly duckling, that's a good one" Jack laughed quietly.

"Because he looks like a duck" Michelle explained after a brief pause to a slightly awkward and stoic Layla. Layla nodded, but she couldn't see it. Cody looked pretty cute to her.

* * *

"Codfish, 7 o'clock"

Cody dropped his comic impatiently and glared at Phil.

"What did I tell you about calling me Codfish?"

Phil ignored Cody's comment and began repeatedly smacking him on the arm until Cody eventually relented and turned around to see what Phil was referring to.

"Yeah, that's the new girl, Layla. She just moved here from England." Cody responded, not even attempting to hide his lack of enthusiasm as he returned to his comic. Phil suddenly looked as unenthused as Cody.

"Has anyone ever told you that you really suck the fun out of a room?" Phil stretched the Juicy Fruit in his mouth and twirled it around his finger nonchalantly. Cody would like to say that Phil's bad habits never ceased to disgust him, but to be honest, he'd gotten used to it by now. "Fuck, Cody, seriously, lighten up."

Phil took Cody's silence as a sign, and pulled his beaten up black iPod, Destructor, from his pocket. Cody followed suit (although he hadn't been weird enough to refer to his iPod by name), not taking his eyes from X-Men. Both boys put their headphones in their ears and turned their iPods on, and one of the rockers from the next table scowled in disgust at the contrasting (and audible) sounds of Cody's calming post-grunge mixed with Phil's too loud punk.

* * *

Adam turned back around to face his friends and shook his head. The rejects were always pissing him off.

"I want our old table back" He grumbled, shakily raking his long blonde hair with his hand. "I blame you for this, Chris"

Chris, in typical fashion, responded to the snarky comment by throwing a Cheeto at Adam and grinning cheekily.

"Hey, you're the one who was too scared to tell Military Man and his boyfriends to move. You bitch out, you deal with the consequences, assclown"

"Yeah, but why couldn't we sit over _there_, near the hot girls? I hate this fucking kid" Adam motioned over his shoulder to Phil, who promptly flipped both Adam and Chris off with a grin.

"Easy, Hannibal, take your medication" Chris frowned, finishing off the last of his Cheetos.

"No, I'm not gonna take my medication" Adam's voice was growing louder, alerting the dweebs at the table next to them. "I don't need my medication! I don't..." Adam took a breath and raked his hair again. "I don't have problems."

* * *

"Cracker Jack forgot to take his meds again" Mike rolled his eyes, twirling the end of his light brown mohawk with his left hand. "Can't get a moment of peace because the schizophrenic's in denial"

"Like you can talk, man, you're not exactly Mr. Easy To Get Along With" Alex retorted without hesitation, although he agreed with what Mike was saying. Adam Copeland was seriously deranged when he didn't take his medication. Mike took a bite of his burger and scowled at Alex and a clearly amused Caylen and Trent.

"What are you talking about Riley, I'm delightful" Mike didn't exactly help his case by grinning at the girls sitting at the next table following his comment, ketchup oozing from his mouth.

* * *

"Ugh, that's disgusting" Maryse put a hand to her head to block the view of Mike and his ketchup covered face at the next table. "Kelly, stop smiling, you'll encourage him"

Kelly's overly-white smile faded with Maryse's words, and Tiffany placed a consoling hand on her shoulder. Eve straightened up next to Maryse, letting Kelly and Tiffany know where her allegiance lay in this situation.

"Oh come on, Eve, this isn't the civil war." Tiffany snapped, her brown eyes narrowing at the lone brunette.

"Tiff, don't be such a bitch" Eve spat back, placing a hand on Maryse's shoulder. Maryse smacked it off before Eve could protest and took a sip of her smoothie. Sometimes she couldn't believe how pathetic her friends were.

"What time do you finish cheer practice tonight, I need help picking out shoes for Saturday" Maryse often thought it was best to shut her friends up by talking about clothes or shopping. They were constantly bickering, so she'd learnt a few techniques over the years.

"Six, and oh my god_ please_ tell me you're wearing the white strapless dress" Kelly gushed, her face once again lighting up.

"I was gonna go with the black skirt and white top thing actually" Maryse responded simply, taking another forkful of her salad and combing her long, platinum blonde hair with her manicured fingers.

"Oh..." Eve was obviously trying to sound pleasantly surprised, but it wasn't working. Eve and Tiffany traded looks, but Maryse caught them.

"What is it?" she asked impatiently, slamming her cup down on the table.

"Well, no offense sweetie, it's just... That skirt doesn't..." Tiffany trailed off, and looked to Kelly for help.

"You just... Uhh..." Kelly bit her lip nervously.

"It doesn't exactly... Accentuate your best features" Eve finished with a kind smile. Maryse dropped her head into her hands and groaned.

"It makes me look fat" All of a sudden, Kelly, Tiffany and Eve all protested at once, touching Maryse's arm and shaking their heads. Yeah, sure,_ now_ they have no trouble talking. Naturally.

"Oh, incoming" Tiffany smiled, raising her eyebrows at the guy walking past.

* * *

"You'd tell me if I looked fat in something, wouldn't you?" Randy asked, dropping his tray down on the table carelessly. John raised an eyebrow up at him from his seat and chewed on his chicken slowly.

"Your thighs." John pointed his fork at Randy's dark blue jeans and swallowed.

"What about them?" Randy sounded seriously concerned, but not concerned enough to keep himself from digging in to his pasta bake.

"They always look fat." John replied simply, looking back down at his plate. Randy laughed, and Evan and Ted quickly joined in.

"Maybe if you joined the team..." John didn't intend on finishing that sentence. He knew Randy would interrupt anyway.

"Oh, come on, we're not talking about this again, man" Randy protested, throwing his head back and letting out a quiet groan.

"I'm just saying, you're not 17 for another couple of months, it's not like you're enlisting tomorrow. You have time, just join the team."

"Said the quarterback to his rebellious best friend before breaking out into inspirational song" Evan smiled with Ted.

"Don't make me step on you" John pointed his fork at Evan threateningly, but he couldn't help laughing. He turned his attention back to Randy, who was making an angry face out of his food. "At least think about it. We could really use a guy with your size and speed."

"Plus, you'd be in with the cheerleaders" Ted grinned, nodding his head back at Maryse and her friends.

"He's already in with the cheerleaders" Evan smiled, nudging Randy with his elbow and receiving a smack across the head for it. "He was with Tiffany last weekend"

John traded looks with Randy, who turned and rolled his eyes at Evan and Ted. "Don't start that crap again, I wasn't, alright. That was the All American Douche" Randy's deep, almost threatening voice silenced Evan. Randy quickly glared at the blonde table and shook his head, but looked back in their direction when something caught his eye. "Is that the new girl?"

* * *

"So, what do you guys do for fun around here?" Layla asked timidly, sparking a reaction from Jack.

"You're British" He observed with a dumb look on his face. Layla nodded once and resisted the strong urge to raise a skeptic eyebrow at him.

"Well, Kristy and Robbie are on the ski team, AJ and Petey are Tom are on the baseball team, Kristy and I are starters for the varsity girls' softball team, Jack's the defensive tackle on the varsity football team and Mark and AJ are line backers, and Jack and Robbie are on the basketball team." Michelle grinned, listing off the accomplishments on her fingers. Layla's eyes had started widening around "softball team" and had continued to pop out of her head until Michelle was done talking. These kids were serious jocks. "Oh, and Jack's thinking about joining the wrestling team. I was thinking about joining too, y'know, being the first girl ever to be on Jefferson's wrestling team..."

"She'd be great at it, she dominates everything else" Jack said, plastering on a goofy smile. Just like Jack hadn't noticed Layla's accent at first, she hadn't noticed his strong lisp until just then. Now that she'd heard it, she couldn't unhear it, and Layla knew she was in for a hard time trying not to laugh every time Jack spoke.

"What about you, Layla, you thinking about signing up for any teams?" Michelle adjusted her sports bra under her tank top and smiled politely.

"Um, well, I did dancing back in London... So I was thinking about maybe signing up for the cheerleading squad"

Michelle's laugh came out so suddenly she choked on a lettuce leaf. "Sorry. Hey, uh, if you wanna be a cheerleader, you should talk to them. They're the cheerleaders" Layla followed Michelle's finger and studied the girls at the popular table.

"Except Maryse. She's too precious to be involved in any sport" Kristy snorted before stealing one of AJ's curly fries.

"Unless you consider whoring a sport" Jack commented through a mouthful of burger.

"Yeah you'd know, wouldn't ya Swagger" AJ grinned, and the entire table erupted into a loud, obnoxious laugh that startled Layla.

"So, wrestling team" Layla mused after the laughter eventually died down.

"I don't even know if we have enough people for the team this year" Jack observed, his blue eyes searching the cafeteria for anyone who would be joining the team. He didn't find any.

"I've heard Rhodes might be signing up" Petey grumbled quietly. Layla slowly turned her head until she could see Cody and Phil, and took a good look at them both. She could hear Michelle, Jack and the rest of the table discussing Cody's reasons for signing up for what they considered their team, but it was indistinct to Layla. For a brief second, Cody's eyes parted with his comic, and met Layla's. It wasn't a judging look like she'd seen so many times today, but it was more of a curious greeting. Friendly. But before Layla got the chance to smile. Cody looked away awkwardly, and Layla got the impression that he didn't really make eye contact with people often. Something about Cody intrigued Layla. She wanted to learn more about him. To her, he didn't seem like the kind of person that should be tucked away in a dark corner reading comics. There was something about him, and Layla was determined to find out what it was.


End file.
